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Monday, 25 July 2011

Splendour Confidential 2011

Debbie Harry at Splendour

Debbie Harry

It was the biggest and the best Splendour we've seen so far and the sun well and truly got its hat and its groove back on for this 18,000 ticket sell out event at Nottingham's Wollaton Park. With a cracking line-up headlined by pop-supermeisters The Scissor Sisters and rock legends Blondie, Splendour threw the local music event of the year with an impressively entertaining range of acts performing on four stages around the park including Feeder, Cast, Eliza Doolittle and The Bluetones.

Jake Shears

Paul Roberts

And fittingly, also performing at the best ever Splendour and adding to the day's great swell of Nottingham pride were critically-acclaimed and all-round adorable local heroes the extroardinarily musically talented Dog Is Dead. "It was brilliant today and the crowd was unbelievable," said vocalist and guitarist Paul Roberts, "We've all grown up in Nottingham and I think it makes it a little bit more special that we're all from here and we've got so much more of a following than we thought we were going to get, it's really quite heart-warming to know there are this many people in our home town who like us, it's very nice. Rob, Trev and Joss met at school, Trev knew Lawrence from primary school and I met Trev at a play at Nottingham Arts Theatre.We all get along like a house on fire and it's brilliant." If you didn't manage to get a ticket for Splendour, the good news is that Dog is Dead will be headlining at Nottingham's Rock City on December 17."We're really glad all our friends from University will be able to come to that one," continues Paul, "because we started off playing just to our friends at college and now they've all gone to uni but they come to see us when they can, so doing the show in the Christmas holidays will be awesome."

Debbie Harry backstage

Luke Bingham

Confidentially, our next tip for the top is the luscious Luke Bingham from Leicester. Appearing on the Courtyard Stage at Splendour, Luke writes all his own songs, got down to the last 80 in Simon Cowell's group in X-Factor in 2006 and is now signed to Leicester's Insatiable Music who also famously signed H "Two" O. "It went really well, everyone enjoyed it, the good thing about this festival is that the times are right," said Luke, "so that when someone is going on one stage, the others are coming off so it draws the audience to you. We're shooting a video in Thailand for my next single which will be coming out in the next three or four months and I'll be doing more festivals, you can catch me at Strawberry Fields in Leicester next month and you can also follow me on Twitter and my Facebook page to see everything that's happening."

Jake Shears

Eliza Doolittle

Finally, we'll end with a confidential heart-warming story from backstage which tells a tale of the power of Twitter and the loveliness of the Scissor Sisters. Scissor Sisters fans Jacques and his mum Cat from Nottingham originally won free tickets in an online competition to see the band perform in Surrey with a meet and greet after the show. But due to a problem with train times Jacques and his mum weren't able to get to Surrey in time and very unluckily missed the gig completely. Undeterred, Jacques used his initiative and tweeted Scissor Scissors lead singer Jake Shears to let him know what had happened and Jake personally arranged to get backstage meet and greet passes at Splendour instead. "I met them earlier today and it was great," said Jacques, "Jake signed my programme and I had my photo taken with the band." "We're so grateful to have that opportunity," added Cat, "It's been fantastic to come backstage and we've really enjoyed ourselves."

Jacques and the Scissor Sisters

A big congratulations goes out to everyone at Splendour 2011. From its beautiful setting to its great organisation, from Blondie rocking the crowd with Ana Matronic from the Scissor Sisters pogoing along to them in front of the stage, to a fantastic summer festival atmosphere, we felt the moment, we felt like dancing, Splendour, your hair is beautiful and we can't wait to come back and see what you do next year.